7/6/2023 0 Comments Dopesick amazon![]() ![]() After a few weeks, the miniature devotionals would disappear, and he would make his way back to the VFW. There were periodic attempts at sobriety, including an out-of-state rehab stint that I was too young to comprehend, after which tiny Alcoholics Anonymous books would appear around the house.īut my dad could never maintain his sobriety. ![]() He spent most days at the VFW bar drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, then staggering the eight blocks home on foot. By the time I came along-a surprise to my middle-aged parents and the youngest by far of four kids-he was a serially unemployed housepainter. He was a World War II veteran who dropped out of school in the seventh grade. If my mom’s dad was a mean drunk, my own dad was somewhat easier to manage: He was mainly an absent drunk. Addiction cycles back through at least four generations of my family. I know the pain-the sense of abandonment, embarrassment, and fear-of not being able to count on an addicted family member. After nearly a decade spent educating myself on the issue, even I am still getting a grasp on how insidious and complex addiction is, and to what degree it’s influenced who I am. Addiction is a heartbreaking, confounding illness, which is why so many loved ones, leaders, and institutions prefer to avert their eyes, hoping the problem will solve itself, or at least not touch them. “You should write a love story instead,” she said. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play ![]()
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